Building on flood plains

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Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
I suppose thst if you want a house with a swimming pool, it’s a cheap way to do it.
 

lazybloke

Ginger biscuits and cheddar
Location
Leafy Surrey
There's are two roads near me that regularly flood due to surface water run-off. By the time the roads get closed,t here's usually at least one abandoned car there; recently it was deep enough that a van conked out.

And there's a geological feature where a chalk hillside rises up out of the London clay. In rare times of high levels of ground water, artesian wells start flowing along that line. This is actually quite rare (once every couple of decades or so), but each occurrence sees absolutely enormous volumes of water flowing for weeks/months on end.

None of the above show up on the environment agency flood map!

But here's the thing; even when houses are shown at risk, people still buy them!
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
Perhaps what looks like a disaster waiting to happen, actually CAN be managed out...
Peterborough, adjacent to the river Nene, they built the rowing lakes, and a few years later, built houses and flats in a relatively nice development on the edge of the rowing lakes. This was all...and part of it still is liable to regular flood
The following winter, that new development flooded so bad, cars were virtually submerged and water half way up the ground floor of the buildings.
Most people said, we could have told you that would happen....

But, its never happened in the 30 years since despite very regular flooding nearby. Its reasonable to assume the water authorities are managing the levels better.

I don't suppose that helps their home insurance premiums...but, the problem seems to have be managed out for many many years
 
There is a house in Bangor (North Wales) right by the pier
It was originally a boathouse and flooded every big High Tide and every high tide in a storm

but someone bougth it and converted it into a proper dwelling house - quite posh as well

but they did in knowing it would flood - and flood with salt water
so the beach floor level is specifically designed to cope with it and the people living there use it in a way where a flood won;t destroy anything
certain bits are waterproof but a lot of it is designed to cope with being flooded
in spite of being used as part of a normal house in normal weather

very clever

I have also seen places where a river is known to flood - so houses are built on stilts and the bottom floor - which floods - is used for things that don;t mind getting wet
and if a car is parked there then the owners know to move it when the river is likely rise

so it can be done in situations where the bottom part of the house is known to flood
 

Psamathe

Senior Member
Not a paper I tend to read but interesting article from 2015. I don't regard 2015 as terrible long ago given the longevity of housing and how we've well understood flood risks and impacts for many years before 2015.
Housebuilding rates higher on flood plains as UK 'stores up problems for future'
New houses are being built in England’s highest-risk flood areas at almost twice the rate of housing outside flood plains, according to figures which a Government adviser warned showed the country was “storing up problems for the future”.
...
(from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ea...ains-as-UK-stores-up-problems-for-future.html)
Ian
 
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